As Sri Lanka election nears, pro-opposition writer vanishes

New York, January 25, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply
concerned by the reported disappearance of Prageeth Eknelygoda, a political
reporter for the Sri Lankan news Web site Lanka
eNews.

Lanka eNews Editor
Sandurwan Senadeera told news organizations that Eknelygoda was last seen leaving
the office on Sunday evening. He told news
outlets that he fears the reporter may have been abducted. In its own
account, Lanka eNews described Eknelygoda
as a political analyst who has supported opposition presidential candidate
Sarath Fonseka, a retired general, in Tuesday’s election. The presidential
election has already been marred
by widespread violence and accusations of cheating by both sides.

Lanka eNews has long
been targeted for harassment by the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the
incumbent who is seeking re-election in Tuesday’s vote. In 2008, CPJ
urged Rajapaksa to halt the Defense Ministry’s practice of
denouncing Lanka eNews and other news
outlets on its official Web site.

“We are deeply concerned by the disappearance of Prageeth
Eknelygoda. Sri Lanka’s
elections are surrounded by violence, and it is legitimate to fear for the safe
return of Eknelygoda,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia
program coordinator. The abduction of journalists is a recurring problem in Sri Lanka. Many
local journalists say the government has permitted a climate of impunity that emboldens
the assailants.

The Canadian Press quoted Media Minister Lakshman Yapa
Abeywardena as saying that the government had no involvement in Eknelygoda’s disappearance.
“The Web site has been publishing defamatory articles but all we did was to
reply to them. We will not resort to these kinds of actions,” Abeywardena told
the Canadian Press.

Sri Lanka
ranks fourth on CPJ’s Global
Impunity Index, a ranking of countries where journalists are
murdered regularly and the killers go free. A 2009 CPJ report, “Failure
to Investigate,” reported on the history of attacks on journalists
and the government’s failure to bring any prosecutions or convictions in any of
the cases.